Mohammed Meqdad

Humanitarian aid worker, LawyerArrested by the Syrian authorities, on 20 September 2012, in Damascus Detained in Adra prison

Lawyer Mohammed Meqdad was a Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer during relief operations related to the war in neighbouring Lebanon in 2006. When the Syrian uprising started in March 2011, he helped distribute food, blankets, and other necessities around Damascus. When he was not working with the Red Crescent, Mohammed collected money, food and blankets from his friends and family and travelled around the city helping people he had identified as in need of assistance.

On the night of 20 September 2012, Syrian security forces arrested him when they stormed his house in Damascus and searched every room, apparently looking for medicine they believed he was distributing to protesters wounded by government fire. The reasons for his arrest or legal status are unknown. Unofficial sources say that Mohammed Meqdad may now be held at ‘Adra prison and that he had also spent time at Military Intelligence Branch 215 in Damascus.